Friday, July 22, 2011

More Q&A around the end of Safari Television's drives

Hi all,

I've been reading your posts and messages and have extracted some more topics that appear to require a bit of clarification. I've tried to answer at least some of these below in the form of another Q&A. If you have any other questions or remarks, please feel free to send them to lastdrive@wildearthsafari.tv so I can include them in a future one.

Q: Are the drives ending because all the money has been spent on 3D?

A: No, they are not. Without the creation of Safari Television in late Februari of last year, and the investment that came with that, WildEarth would have had to stop the drives soon afterwards for the same reason Safari Television has to now: Internet advertising alone does not yield enough revenue to keep this going. While in the time since then we have not been able to complete our vision for 3D (which would have allowed drives to continue into the future on both TV and the Internet), this investment and the revenue generated from 3D sales has kept them going at least this long.

Q: Can the drives be saved by dropping everything related to TV and 3D and going back to the way things were before March of last year?

A: Unfortunately not. One of the reasons WildEarth searched for alternatives, which led to the creation of Safari Television, is that then as now internet advertising revenue alone can not sustain the operation of LIVE game drives.

Q: Is this all Torsten Hoffmann's fault?

A: Definitely not, Torsten became WildEarth's Distribution Director and chose WildEarth as project for his Oxford MBA thesis only after we had embarked on this course.

Q: In a previous blog you mentioned the opportunity to give tips to the Safari crew. How can we do this?

You can also send questions about the process to the crew at the same address.

Q: If I send a tip, who will benefit from this?

A: The current crew at Djuma, who have brought you the safaris: Marc, Tara, Herman, Sebastien, Siphiwe and Craig. They will divide whatever comes in between them.

Q: Why does Peter Braat's name show up on my payment receipt? Isn't this supposed to be for the crew?

A: It is. To get money out of PayPal, the account needs to be linked to a bank account. The options for this are very limited in South Africa due to Exchange Control regulations and none of the crew have a qualifying account. This is why they asked if my PayPal account could be used for this. The email crewtips@wildearthsafari.tv is set-up specifically to be used for this so there will be no confusion.

Q: Who will be monitoring what comes in?

A: The crew at Djuma. I have shared my PayPal account password with them and they will monitor what comes in and respond personally to everyone who does decide to tip them. I am not involved in that beyond offering them the use of my PayPal account to make this possible and to afterwards forward the money to them.

Q: Can I check whether this is true with the crew at Djuma?

A: Yes of course! Feel free to ask them.

Q: Will any tip money coming in be in lieu of Safari Television's obligations to the crew?

A: No, certainly not. Safari Television will meet all its obligations to its employees as part of the close down and this is a completely different and totally separate process. Safari Television is not involved in anything to do with the tips aside from me (Peter) offering the use of my private PayPal account to facilitate the process.